33. Study Suggests Attackers Choose Victims Based on the Way They Walk

http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/04/09/journal_of_interpersonal_violence_study_suggests_attackers_choose_victims.html

Justin Peters wrote on Tuesday, about an investigation of how criminals choose their victims. The author's initial argument presented ways to avoid being a victim, thus reducing the chances of being "mugged, assulted, or otherwise attacked." His last statement, "Walk with a purpose" explicitly introduced his main topic of the article, that one's way of walking does affect whether or not criminals will choose to assult them in one way or another. In the second paragraph, Peters emphasized the importance of walking assuredly and supported this with a study based on the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. In the survey conducted by the study, researchers discovered that 47 criminals in an Ontario prison selected their victims according to a sense of weakness portrayed through the ways they walked. In order to be sure of this, an experiment was conducted. A video of twelve people walking, some of which had been victimized in the past, was shown to a "group of inmates" and the individuals were asked whether or not those in the footage were likely to be good victims. Surprisingly, many of those whom the criminals choose as easy targets were indeed assulted at least once in the past. When asked to explain the reason behind why they chose such victims, they replied that the people "walked like an easy target."

Justin Peters had several purposes for writing this article. The most obvious reason was to inform most people, if not all, about how one's gait can affect their vulnerability to become a victim. This is evident in the way Peters presented his arguments, first by introducing the point and later supporting it with a study made by the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. The similie ("Don't wave wads of cash around like you're in Brewster's Millions") and illustration ("... or if you befriend J. J. Bittenbinder...") were effective in the way that they made the readers have a clearer understanding of what Peters was trying to say. Another purpose was to present the causes and effects through comparing and contrasting different gaits of people. The way people walked in public either increased or decreased their chances of being attacked or assualted by criminals, and this was viewed in the author's analysis of the inmates and how they viewed each individual in the footage. However, contrast to the audience's expectations that Peters was mostly likely trying to encourage people to change their gaits, the author's opinion towards the issue is explicitly presented in the final pagaraph. He advised to not take the study much into consideration because the sample size was small. "Nevertheless, it reinforces something that seems pretty intuitive," and this was evident when he explained that criminals avoid challenges and look for easier ways to get what they want. Finally, Peters encouraged people to walk "down the street like you own it" because it could definitely keep them from seeming vulnerable to criminals.